Unique, Response to the book, p.200~252

This time, I was so glad that there was not so much violence or horror. But I've got to worry that the ending might not be happy. There seems to be less and less hope. They reached the beach but there's nothing special. There's no end to this journey. How would the story be concluded? I cannot guess...


1. Luck.

The man and the boy met a lucky moment when they found the bunker full of canned food. They were dying of starvation at that time but they got the luck of finding food.

Their luck didn't end there. When they ran out of all the food they took from the bunker, when they were about to die, the boy found a house. The boy was scared to enter the house but there were was nothing dangerous there. Instead, the man found blankets, clothes and canned food.

Later, when they reached the beach with no food in hand, they found a boat. Again, the boy didn't want the man to approach it, but the man finds clothes, canned food and most importantly, I think, a flarepistol.

I can only say that the man and the boy were really lucky to find these things whenever they ran out of food and supplies. Actually, it's quite surprising how they could survive on the road, only by themselves, sticking to their morality, in the first place.


2. But I was anxious!!

Well, even if there were not so many bad things happening throughout this week's reading, I could not help being anxious all the time. There seemed to be too many things that indicate unfortunate things coming.

The boy was scared all the time. He again and again tried to talk his father out of going to an unknown place. Every time I read the boy expressing his anxiety, I became so nervous, I worried that the moment I feel the urge to throw away the book would come. Nothing happened, but again and again I tensed and worried something might happen.

There were also direct references to death. On p202 it says they slept 'the sleep of death'. On p213 the man wakes up at night 'like a man waking in a grave' and a description of corpses which had died in a cholera epidemic. (It made me think that it's foreshadowing the man's death...!) And on p229 the man says to himself that everyday is a lie, but that you're dying is not a lie.

And lastly, the boy was dying! All right, he recovered at the end, but I was so worried that he might really die, leaving the man hopeless and utterly alone. This part even made me sadder, showing the man's love toward the boy: 'He walked out on the beach to the edge of the light and stood with his clenched fists on top of his skull and fell to his knees sobbing in rage.'(p250)


3. Relationship between the man and the boy

The boy is hiding things from his father. On p218 the boy goes out to swim in the sea and comes back, but doesn't let his father know what he saw there. 'When he looked the boy was crying. What is it? he said. Nothing. No, tell me. Nothing. It's nothing.' I'm afraid the boy saw something terrible in the sea, but is hiding that...

On p252 the boy hides his dream. 'I had some weird dreams. What about? I dont want to tell you.' What dream? He once had a dream of his father dying. He again had a dream so terrible as that one? Or he saw the future, considering that he is often refered as a special being, like God?


4. The Sea (The Coast)

The man expected something to be on the coast. Warmth, food, supplies and maybe some good people. But there's none. Only sea water and salty wind are there. The sea is not blue, either. The boy swims there but he comes back crying. There's no living thing on the coast like seagulls or crabs or clams. The coast was their hope, their destination, but there's nothing on the coast.

In this situation there comes out a flashback (in other words, the man's memory) that makes me feel sick. He was on the coast with his wife. 'When he went back to the fire he knelt and smoothed her hair as she slept and he said if he were God he would have made the world just so and no different.'(p219)

The coast was once a beautiful place for the man. But it's not anymore. It makes me be sorry. And worry that there might be not many things to do for the man and the boy...


5. Other people

Quotes below show that the boy is expecting there to be some people, other people than them, living on.

'What's on the other side?/ Nothing./ There must be something./ Maybe there's a father and his little boy and they're sitting on the beach./ That would be okay./ Yes. That would be okay./ And they could be carrying the fire too?/ They could be. Yes.'(p216)
+ Carrying the fire appeared again.

'There could be people alive someplace else./ You mean besides on earth?/ Yes./ I don't think so. They couldnt live anyplace else./ Not even if they could get there?/ No./ The boy looked away./ What? the man said./ He shook his head. I don't know what we're doing./ After a while [the man] said: There are people. There are people and we'll find them. You'll see.' (p244)
+ The book now tries to be on a universal scale. The boy is asking whether there are other creatures besides on earth. Even if the man says no, I think there are. And I think the boy is knowing that, too.

'Maybe we could write a letter to the good guys. So if they came along they'd know we were here. We could write it up where it wouldnt get washed away./ What if the bad guys saw it?/ Yeah./ I shouldnt have said that. We could write them a letter./ The boy shook his head. That's okay, he said.'(p245)
+ The boy is disappointed. :-( He is just accepting the man's word, understanding what he's worried about. It makes me sad. He became too old for his age.

'They couldnt see it very far, could they, Papa?/ Who?/ Anybody./ No. Not far./ If you wanted to show where you were./ You mean like to the good guys?/ Yes. Or anybody that you wanted them to know where you were./ Like who?/ I dont know./ Like God?/ Yeah. Maybe somebody like that.'(p246)
+ So the boy wanted to shoot the flarepistol to signal to other people on the earth. And maybe to God, too. To let them know that they are here, to urge them to come and find them...?



+) Questions.

I don't quite get what this part means:
'I think maybe they are watching, he said. They are watching for a thing that even death cannot undo and if they do not see it they will turn away from us and they will not come back.'(p210)

Who are 'they'? Their turning away from the man and the boy is good or not? What is the thing that even death cannot undo? Does it mean that Gods are watching for a thing like humanity and love and if they do not see those things in the man and the boy then they will leave them?